In recent years, along with the development of communication infrastructures and progress of information communication technologies, users who browse WEB pages can order merchandise and services via the Internet. As various payment methods of such commercial transactions via the Internet are available, (e.g., credit card payment, convenience store payment, e-cash) a single sales site often supports a plurality of payment methods.
Some payment service providers who provide such payment means provide WEB pages that accept payments. The user who wants to order merchandise or service can directly notify a payment service provider of payment information using such WEB page that accepts payment, and need not inform sellers of merchandizes and services of his or her payment information.
Conventionally, it is a common practice that a seller of merchandizes and services accepts payment information, and notifies a payment service provider of that information. However, WEB pages provided by payment service providers are recently prevalently applied since purchasers' payment information is unlikely to be leaked to a third party, and sellers are unlikely to be held responsible for such leakage.
A payment procedure using a WEB page provided by a payment service provider normally requires the following steps. A WEB page that exhibits available items and services is displayed first, and a WEB page that prompts an orderer to input his or her name and the like is displayed. When the orderer presses, for example, a payment button, a WEB page provided by the payment service provider is displayed, and information about the amounts of merchandizes and services, which is required for a payment, is passed from the seller to the payment service provider at that time. The orderer inputs information required for a payment such as a credit card number and the like on the WEB page provided by the settlement service provider. If the settlement service provider certifies the payment based on the input information, the settlement service provider notifies the seller whether or not the payment procedure is normally completed, and the seller then displays a WEB page which includes the payment result, order contents, and the like.
On the other hand, when a WEB page provided by the settlement service provider is not applied, the following steps are commonly used. A WEB page that exhibits items and services available at the seller's WEB site is displayed first, and a WEB page that prompts an orderer to input information required for a payment (e.g., a credit card number and the like) together with his or her name and the like is displayed. When the orderer presses, for example, a payment button, the seller passes information such as the amount, credit card number, and the like to the payment service provider. The payment service provider notifies the seller, based on the input information, whether or not the payment procedure is normally completed, and the seller then displays a WEB page which includes the payment result, order contents, and the like.
In this manner, in commercial transactions using the Internet, information exchange via the network includes an item specifying step, an orderer specifying step, a payment method specifying & application step, and the like. For this reason, processes cannot be completed in the middle of a transaction, and the orderer may inadvertently make a plurality of identical applications although he or she actually wanted to make a single application. When the WEB page provided by the payment service provider is used, because information exchange with another site other than the seller is required for the orderer, such problem is more likely to occur.
This problem is posed upon selling tangible items. Also, when provision of a specific service for a predetermined period is to be charged, because an identical orderer may be inhibited from making an application of identical contents, the above problem becomes more serious.
As described above, because a single sales site often supports a plurality of payment methods, a single user may make a payment using different payment systems (payment service providers) upon ordering an identical item. For this reason, when the identical orderer is inhibited from making an application of identical contents, different payment systems may be designated even for orders with identical contents.